The New Dawn That Is Not

By N Sathiya Moorthy

Recently, Education Minister Susil Premajayantha told Parliament that the Government was making efforts to increase the number of teachers across the country —  but there would still remain a shortage of 26,000 teachers. His proposals include hiring retired and former teachers for provincial councils, which already have the funds allocated for the year. The process will be set in motion after obtaining Cabinet approval, he said.

After the economic crisis, there have been reports of an increasing shortage of medical doctors, starting with super-speciality doctors. The Government has even extended their services to address the concern, and the trade unions are, thankfully, not protesting. The Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) and other professional bodies have been talking about doctors looking elsewhere for greener pastures in the aftermath of the economic crisis.

Government leaders have been talking about ways and means to arrest the trend. For his part, President Ranil Wickremesinghe went on to suggest that the Government should demand compensation from countries that hire Sri Lankans doctors. He did not explain how such an impractical response, even if accepted by other nations, would help address the local shortage of doctors – which is being felt in most Government hospitals across the country.

The same reasons and yardstick would not apply to the shortage of school teachers, of course. No one, starting with teachers associations or educationists, have claimed that teachers were leaving the country in search of jobs elsewhere, again, owing to the economic crisis. The minister, in his response to the relevant question, did not say so in Parliament. Nor was he known to have given out the details for the shortage.

Unlivable and more

Visibly, the teacher-shortage may have nothing much to do with the economic crisis that is only a year old (so to say) but has everything to do with years of neglect by successive Governments. If anything, the economic crisis may have provided the platform for the Government to take note and Minister Premajayantha to acknowledge it in Parliament.

Does it mean that the nation could assume that the Government is taking stock of shortage of men and material in various other departments? Reports have it that there is an increasing shortage of qualified engineers – some, if not much of it, attributable to domestic economic crisis and the consequent dollar-shortage that had made the country ‘unlivable’ for the average middle class.

Many, from other trades and professions, too are going away. Going by the number of new passport-holders over the past one-plus years, officials confess the figure was relatively high than normal. Studies have shown that people are leaving, possibly for good.

That is to say, from nations that offer citizenship, people may not return. From those in the Gulf, where people have been going for jobs even otherwise for decades now, they have to return. Even there the assumption is that those in high-end jobs like medicine and engineering, auditing and management, they will be hoping to hop across to wherever they could migrate – and for good.

Economic refugees

In other times in other circumstances, they all would be dubbed ‘economic refugees’— and that is what they are even otherwise. Until not very long ago, the Government used to work closely with Australia, Singapore and other South-East Asian nations to check against Tamil boat-people ‘escaping’ so-called ‘political victimisation’ (often non-existing).

There are no recent reports that there is massive illegal Tamil migration. Nor is there any illegal Sinhala or Christian or Muslim migration of the kind. Whoever is leaving the country is taking the legit route, from the international airport at Kattanayake, no questions asked. There is no stopping them thus far.

The current hopes are that the economy is recovering after all there may be a slowdown in the exit. Certainly, the poor and less qualified persons, including starting with the youth of all communities and ethnicities, may have little or no choice thus far. Barring a sporadic number of Tamils landing in India in uncertain periodicity over the past year-plus, there aren’t any ‘economic migrants’ – or, call their escape as such.

All of it means only one thing. The Government cannot continue to haggle over the course of the economy. Nor can political parties shy away from facing facts. If nothing has changed in the political structure and conduct after the ‘very promising’ and equally earth-shaking’ Aragalaya protests last year, even the thinking, working and conduct of political parties has not changed.

Continue the blame-game

That does not stop with the Government parties, especially the SLPP under-writer of the Ranil dispensation. Even the Opposition, which demanded a new dawn and got it too, has failed the nation miserably – and equally shamelessly. There is no new dawn, not for the nation, not for the citizenry – not even for the polity.

What does it all mean? The Government and the Opposition, together and separately are not going to have the time and more so the inclination to address the pressing issues of Education, both school and university education. For some more time, they can continue to blame the economy and each other or one another, as the case may be in the months to come.

If there is a change of government or President after the twin elections to the presidency and Parliament, then they would blame the present rulers for the nation’s plight. They will also set to undo what all the present Government is doing, or would promise/threaten to do, without producing any results through the short, medium and long terms.

Less said about the continuance of this leadership the better. They would promise to continue the ‘good job’ that they had commenced in the current term, against all odds. And would continue to do the same…Until the time when schools get closed for want of teachers, just as hospitals are now being threatened in the absence of doctors, nurses, medicines and equipment.

(The writer is a policy analyst & political commentator, based in Chennai. India. Email: sathiyam54@nsathiyamoorthy.com)